MESSAGE OF EASTER

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 80, 4 April 1923, Page 11

MESSAGE OF EASTER

w in iditor. Sir, —A correspondent in your paper to-night, M. J. Forde, referring to your article,. " The Mesßage of Easter," seeks to ally Christianity with Communism, md to show that they should be synonymous terms. He seeks also to show that Christ taught the principles of Communism. Christ taught only one doctrine—viz., " Fear " of God and love for your neighbour, which is now known as Christianity. I» that Communism? If it is, then Communism ig toniething very different to what is known by that name. Perhaps it would have been at well for your correspondent to have defined Communism before calling it a term identical with Christianity. In none of Christ* teaching was the social state of master and man, or.of employer and employed, adversely spoken of. Quite the contrary. Half | the parables are devoted to telling masters to be good employers and workers to be good employees. The moneylenders were severely dealt with certainly, as your correspondent states, but here, as ever, a little knowledge is dangerous, and your correspondent would not have written that if he had made himself acquainted with the difference of the money-lenders of that day with the money-lenders of the present time in a Christian. community. j Your leading article was right (in spite of the fact that your correspondent holds the contrary view), whon it set forth that ■ there can only be human advancement when there is .'.' practical translation in the lives of men of the ethics of the Sermon on the Mount under the vital and powerful influence of the Message of Easter "; and we need not wait to change our social and economic system for that to take place. There is nothing wrong with the system. The wrong is with the people.—l am, etc., NEW ZEALANDER.' 3rd April.